By Chris Robinson

Last weekend was a triumphant one for Oxnard trainer Robert ‘Grandpa’ Garcia. Working with his lightweight charge Brandon ‘Bam Bam’ Rios, the two men faced the challenge of unbeaten D.C. fighter Anthony Peterson at the Palms Casino and Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. Peterson had already been generating buzz on his career over the past few years while Rios had just bust onto the scene with a February stoppage over Brooklyn’s Jorge Teron, so a victory wasn’t expected by everyone.

What Rios produced was thrilling stuff, however, as he weathered an early Peterson storm on his way to rocking his 25-year old opponent in the 4th and dropping him in the 5th. A frustrated Peterson would be disqualified in the 7th round after resulting to low-blow tactics. Looking back on that successful night, Garcia seems to beam with admiration when speaking of his fighter’s abilities.

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“It was very, very impressive,” Garcia stated. “He shocked the boxing world because very few people gave him a shot against Peterson. But he trained so hard, he was mentally ready and so prepared for that fight. There was no way he was going to lose that fight. He did something that very few people thought he could do.”

The fight was a WBA lightweight eliminator and Rios has inched closer to a possible showdown with ‘super’ champion Juan Manuel Marquez, who has an intriguing November 27th bout with Michael Katsidis lined up at the MGM Grand. Asked for his opinion on that particular fight Garcia insists that Marquez is weighing heavily on Team Rios’ mind.

“You know what, we are the mandatory to the champion so of course we will be keeping an eye on that fight,” Garcia confirmed. “But it has a lot to do with promoters also. That’s a Golden Boy card and we are with Top Rank and as everybody knows lately they haven’t been working together. Maybe Top Rank is more likely to match us up again Humberto Soto or interim champion [Miguel] Acosta. I would love the winner of Katsidis-Marquez. Marquez is a huge idol in Mexico so it would be a great opportunity for us to fight somebody like him.”

Garcia went on to say that he and Rios are currently in Los Angeles for tonight’s Shane Mosley-Sergio Mora event at the Staples Center and that they passed by Marquez. ‘Brandon looks like a monster compared to him,’ Garcia would say, obviously chomping at the bit for his man to get that coveted opportunity.

For the moment there isn’t a bigger of more meaningful fight to Garcia than the November 13th bout between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas as he has been working with the ‘Tijuana Tornado’ since the beginning of the year. Garcia noted that Margarito has been putting work in the past couple of weeks and that the intensity in camp stepped up after their time together in Las Vegas.

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Margarito starts his day by running up Mt. Baldy, a regimen he will continue for another week before they break camp for Oxnard, and Garcia revealed that the former champion is extremely focused and already in great shape. Margarito is still dealing with the after-effects of his one-year suspension from the California State Athletic Commission following his hand wraps debacle prior to his loss to Shane Mosley but Garcia insists he is dealing with a fighter who is on a mission.

“There’s a lot of distractions in boxing,” Garcia claimed. “Of course we have to deal with all of that, that’s one thing we really monitor. The main thing is the weight. It’s a sport where they can’t afford to be gaining and losing all that weight in two months. Good thing about Margarito, the first thing I did was weigh him Monday after training and he’s weighing 159. So he’s only got nine pounds to lose for his fight. That’s very good. It’s like a pound per week and that’s a great advantage for Margarito.”

There had been recent rumblings online that middleweight champion Sergio Martinez was being considered by Team Margarito and Garcia noted as much. Martinez suffered the first loss of his career against Margarito in February of 2000 on the undercard of the wild first battle between Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera but in an interesting turn of events the two men could now find themselves working with one another as they both head into huge bouts in their respective careers.

“I’m very close to Sergio Martinez’ camp and he is such a great person and they offered to help us out with whatever we need. I know that he is fighting Paul Williams, who is totally the opposite of Antonio Margarito, but he may be coming a couple days a week to camp. So more than likely we will be having Sergio Martinez as one of our sparring partners. We’ll have another four to five sparring partners but Martinez will be one of them. As of now that is what his coach and his team have already told me.”

Chris Robinson is based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. An archive of his work can be found here, and he can be reached at Trimond@aol.com